Best of...

Best shot of two wild women on road trip: Universal Studios, California

Best presidential moment: Mt. Rushmore, South Dakota

Best tourist trap: Wall Drug, South Dakota

Best cautionary sign: Badlands, South Dakota

Best place to say, "wow": Grand Canyon, Arizona

Best lake: Yosemite National Park, California

Best place to view wildlife: Wildlife Loop, Custer State Park, South Dakota

Best Lauren moment: Los Angeles, California

Best view from a lunch spot: Lake Tahoe, California

Best indulgence: pedicures in LA

Best geyser moment: wet but worth it...at Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Best road to drive fast on: Route 90, Wyoming

Best Route 66 scene: Arizona

Best seafood dinner: Craig and Hum's in Indianapolis, Indiana

Best campsite:  Custer State Park, South Dakota

From sea to shining sea

We crossed the Rainbow Bridge that welcomed us back 

to the USA and we headed back to Fayetteville. The border patrol did not detain us.

 We brought back new boots for our little cowpoke. He loves them and clomps around the house rounding up the dogs.

A few days later we were back in the car and headed towards the east coast. We were not ready to end our vacation.

From Pacific to Atlantic and all points in between we had a great time but it was good to be back with the family at Robert Moses State Park.

Of course, we (meaning George and Matt) made the annual sand sculpture. The back was a castle...

...and the front morphed into a dragon. After a great day at the beach it was back to the Constantino's for the summer barbeque of surf and turf. Vacation is now officially over :(

Rain, rain go away..why must it rain on our last day?

We left Chicago at 8am and drove a LONG way through Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Canada in a continual downpour. When we finally stopped for lunch (our picnic plans were rained out) we had to wait out more thunder and lightening and rain as it was too dangerous to drive. One warning when you eat at Panera. When it rains, the small strip of metal at the bottom of the door gets wet and slick. When Randi went to run to the car she slipped and went flying into the sidewalk. No injuries; just hysterical laughing to relieve the boredom of our rainy drive.

After many hours we crossed the bridge to Canada. The border agent was a humorless young man who grilled us. Ann did not disclose our mace as a weapon when the agent specifically asked, "Do you have any mace or pepper spray or weapons?". We are now fugitives in Canada.

We had not made reservations in Hamilton as we anticipated stopping and just checking into a local hotel. Unfortunately, by 8 o'clock all hotels in Hamilton and St. Catherines were all booked due to some local flood, a football game, some festivals and a regatta! We were tired and hungry and found this oasis in the rain to stop and regroup. At this point a miracle occurred. We told our waitress our story and she began to call all around the city until she found us a room. We stayed in a beautiful downtown hotel called the Crown Plaza and had a great meal at the Fool and Flagon.

Almost home

We changed our travel plans and instead of taking the ferry across Lake Michigan, we headed to the windy city, which immediately lived up to its name. We encountered major traffic all the way there and drove through downpours. The universe must be crying that our trip is coming to an end.

Our first stop was one that took us 9 years to get there. Ever since Ann heard that this place had the best corned beef we've tried to eat here. Our Garmin faithfully led us to this hallowed spot and we were very hungry after all the traffic.

Ann got the Barack Obama special of corned beef on rye with a potato pancake. Randi had homemade beef stew. The food was delicious and well worth the wait.

We wanted to visit downtown Chicago and knew just where we should park, but on our way to Michigan Avenue we saw swarms of people and heard loud music blaring from the park. No, the Harley guys had not followed us here but Lollapalooza did. Hundreds of young people were flocking to hear bands, such as The Killers, even in the pouring rain.

When we finally parked and got out we were so happy to be in Chicago.

We always enjoy having our picture taken in The Bean.

The Bean is just one of the many contemporary sculptures that sit in Millennium Park.

Even the artwork was raining today.

We didn't mind the exorbitant parking fee because we got into the Art Institute free. Target hosts free nights in the summer. Ann got to see her favorite Cassatt painting and we spent many dry hours wandering among the beautiful artwork.

Ann was inspired by all the great artwork and took this artsy farewell shot.

Our trip out west has ended and we continue eastward. No more kicks on Rt 66. One more stop tomorrow before we return home.

Exploring the upper midwest

In the early hours we left South Dakota and began our trek towards home. This was the view that we had for the entire day as we crossed three states: South Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin...corn, corn, and more corn.

As lunchtime neared we began to search for a picnic spot for our lunch. As luck would have it, we pulled off to get gas and Ann asked the man at the station if there was anything tourist like in the area. He said, "Yeah, the giant. Go around the corner down by the Dairy Queen". We followed his advice and Randi was greeted by three local farmers who were happy to see us. They were standing outside a small hut in the shadow of a large giant.

The Jolly Green Giant stands tall alongside Ann in Blue Earth, Minnesota. Our luck continued when the woman in the small gift shop told us, "If you like this, you gotta stop in Austin to see the SPAM Museum". She then put a red X on a spot in NY on a  map of the US to mark that we had come to visit her shop. 

One hour later we arrived in Austin, home of Hormel and all it's meat products. The gatekeeper at the museum told us it was, "Free to park and free to go in the museum!". 

Our tour guide, Norm, was unbelievable friendly and offered to take our picture with Spammy. You can tell we are excited to begin our tour. We saw a movie about the history of SPAM and toured a museum that was decorated in bright yellow and blue; was interactive and filled with activities, SPAM memorabilia, videos, and facts about SPAM,

We took the SPAM exam which was like a game show where you got to push buttons to guess trivia about SPAM. We could have spent hours here but knew that we needed to push onward. We did stop at the gift shop and got a free can of hickory smoked SPAM with the purchase of a t-shirt. We even got to taste this mystery meat in a can. It was actually tasty!

As we crossed into Wisconsin we were fully engrossed in our book on CD, "A Thousand Splendid Suns" which caused Randi to drive on the wrong side of one of the thousand splendid construction cones we have encountered on our entire trip thanks to the American Recovery Act and stimulus money. We avoided any danger as Ann's loud yell helped Randi discover her slight driving error.

As we traveled through Wisconsin we crossed the Mississippi River and saw a real steamboat chugging along toward the bridge.

We reached the beautiful outskirts of Madison and found a great restaurant to have dinner. We tried real Wisconsin Mac N Cheese and had pretzel rolls with dinner. The waitress was super friendly and told us all the hot spots to see tomorrow in downtown Madison.

We're in hog hell

We entered South Dakota and innocently stopped to buy gas at a local Loaf 'N Jug store. As we were driving through the state we had noticed that there were an inordinate amount of Harley motorcycles on the road with us. We thought it was a coincidence on our trek to Mt. Rushmore.

Before we reached the four presidents, we took an impulsive detour to see some caves "somewhere in the black mining hills of Dakota". We skipped the 700 step tour and opted for the shorter Scenic Discovery Tour.

Although it was 92 degrees outside, down over 300 feet in the Jewel Cave it was 42 degrees. Our biker pals on the tour didn't wear coats, but we did. It was an impressive cavern filled with crystals and interesting rock formations.

As we continued on our way to Mt. Rushmore, Ann spotted the perfect gift shop and insisted that we pull in to check it out. Along with buffalo skulls, animal hides, and guns, we spotted these adorable stuffed jackelopes. Unfortunately, they just didn't match our Central New York decor.

We're not sure what you'd do with this decorative item but it was reasonably priced. 

On to Mt. Rushmore with our Harley hog buddies. By this time, the amount of bikes was growing exponentially and we were beginning to wonder why. We discovered that it was the 69th annual Sturgis Bike Rally. Over FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND bikers descend each year into South Dakota from Sturgis to Wall and everywhere in between. This could have been a reason we couldn't find a good camping spot.

Ann is thrilled to finally see this landmark. She's been wanting to come here for years. It was an amazing site and the movie and exhibits told the fascinating story of its creation. The sculptor died before it was fully completed but his son finished the job.

Do you think Washington looks better from this side?

Remember the deal was that if it was raining we stayed at a motel? Well, it started out a bit cloudy and by the time the tent was put up Ann was in the car listening to the weather channel which was predicting hail and 60mph winds. Randi kept reassuring her it would blow through. After some tense times in the car while it poured and the tent whipped back and forth, all calmed down and we were able to camp alongside our pot smoking Harley buddies at the Crazy Horse Campgrounds.

The next morning we drove through Custer State Park and took the wildlife loop. 

Traffic jams occurred frequently as buffalo casually strolled past our cars. There were hundreds of them roaming wild and as it was mating season, they were friskier than usual. One of our biker friends told us later that there had been a standoff between a buffalo and a biker. He said that the buffalo won.

We met some jovial burros who were looking for some food.

After we lucked out and found a campsite in the park, we spent the afternoon by a beautiful lake. At first, there were only a handful of swimmers but eventually, our biker friends found us and we overheard them telling horror stories of one of their friends getting his foot crushed by a truck at the rally. They left and we were able to resume reading our books by the calm lake waters.

As you can see, when Randi put up the tent, the sun was shining and all was well at our site. We sat in chairs and smelled the warm scent of pine and listened to their whispering sounds. As night approached, the sky darkened and lightening began to flash. We quickly put away our chairs and zipped up the tent. A huge rolling thunderstorm swept across our secluded campsite. Ann wanted to run to the Suburu but Randi assured her that, once again, it would pass. Although it was really loud and booming and lasted for over an hour, it did pass and the sun returned in the morning.

The next day it was time to move on and we stopped at Wall Drug along with a few hundred of our friends. By now, we felt like we were getting on a Harley every time we turned on the Suburu. One biker told us the population of the state of South Dakota doubles during the Sturgis Rally. Who knew?

Ann didn't want to go horseback riding so this is the closest Randi got to it.

After Wall, it was on to the Badlands to drive the scenic route 240. We enjoyed many overlooks as did our buddies. So many bikers reminded Ann of ants at a picnic. Harleys were swarming all over the roads we drove on but, unlike ants, were not quiet. Have you ever hear the revving of a Harley at six in the morning or at 11 at night or on a scenic highway in the west? We have.

The Badlands were an awesome and amazing example of geologic land formations. We followed a winding road and each turn brought a new vista.

Striped mountains appeared around each bend.

Our final destination was a dream of Randi's. She always wanted to see the Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota after reading about it 27 years ago on her first trip out west.

The Corn Palace is also the town's civic center which hosts everything from basketball games to concerts. Each picture or scene on the palace is made from corn or husks and over 100 acres of corn are used each year to complete the ever changing scenes.

As we headed into another sunset, we were "steered" in the right direction by this large sculpture. 

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